A couple of days after the withdrawal from Bessarabia, the triumphal entry of the Roumanian army into Bucharest took place, and the striking unanimity with which the dignified bearing of the Prince and his subjects was recognised both at home and abroad afforded Prince Charles much consolation during this critical period.
From the German Crown Prince, October 19th, 1878.
"You know that you were much in my thoughts during the Congress and afterwards, in the midst of that truly difficult period of negotiations about the cession of Bessarabia. But I purposely refrained from writing to you, because I did not know how I was to express myself in view of such events.
"I was convinced that you would estimate the circumstances correctly, and be able to take matters as they are. The exchange of territory, however, hit you doubly hard, since only too many were anxious to throw suspicion on you for being an immigrant wanting in 'patriotic feeling.' Thank Heaven, the representatives of your country appear to have submitted with the necessary resignation, so that you have been relieved of a real trouble. May Roumania now speedily realise all the advantages which may still be drawn from the Dobrudscha, though it offers but little, and may the construction of bridges, canals, and ports mark a new era in your rule. If such undertakings succeed, a true substitute will have been found for all you have given up, and one day the advantage may perhaps be on your side. This is my heart's desire.
"Russia's conduct, after the manful service you did for that colossal Empire, meets with censure on all sides. I do not understand the importance which they attach to that piece of land. But they have scarcely got their way, when Russia begins to stir up a question about Afghanistan, which again threatens the peace, though for the present only in Asia! As if enough blood had not been shed already. It is to be hoped that the good Ameer will listen to reason, but the general tension is nevertheless very great."
Referring to the events of the last summer, the attempted assassination of the Emperor William I., and his own Regency, the Crown Prince remarks:
"My best thanks, though late, for your welcome and sympathetic letter in June. You felt with us what a heavy blow had fallen on us all, and rejoiced with us over the recovery of the dear Emperor, whom I found wonderfully well at Cassel and Baden. His freshness and mobility, his memory and spirits are completely restored. Yet those who see him daily, say that mental exertion still tires him easily, and that he is therefore very willing to avoid it. His resumption of official duties is thus postponed still further, so that I shall probably not be free from this burden until December on his return from Wiesbaden to Berlin!...
"A few days ago we bade farewell to Henry for two years. Seldom has a separation fallen so heavily on my heart as this. He proceeds round Cape Horn viâ Rio, and will then join his station in Japan.
"William has just returned from England and Scotland; he met Charlotte and Bernard in Paris, where they amused themselves immensely in the strictest incognito....
"My wife and I are tolerably well in spite of these troublous times, which in less than half a year have brought me a Peace Congress, marriages, special legislation, dissolution of the Imperial Diet, elections, and the execution of a death sentence. In all these events I see God's will that I should taste of everything that still is set before me. But it is not easy to exercise the rights and bear all the burdens of a monarch to the best of one's ability and conscience without taking the sole responsibility.
"To-morrow the Imperial Diet concludes its deliberations; let us hope that the law against social democracy marks the commencement of a radical cure, by means of which this evil may be overcome. It will, however, cost us much pains before we can rid ourselves of this abortion, which has increased with such incredible rapidity since the teaching of this unhealthy society finds a ready market, and the attempted assassinations, which will now multiply still more, show the direction taken by a misunderstood application...."